Page 29 of Bound By Blood

He wasn’t saying that to be mean or to instigate another argument; it was just fact. Two hours to an immortal was nothing, but to a human, it was irreplaceable.

Carly snorted. “So, what are we going to do in the meantime?”

Landon shook his head and gave her a small smile. “There’s really nothing we can do, sweetheart. We can go over all of this until we are blue in the face, but it won’t get us anywhere. Until I have a legitimate reason to leave Gravesdale, we can’t go see Kata.”

The two of them fell quiet once more, and Carly searched his eyes for several moments before she spoke again. “You never did feed, you know.”

The sudden change of topic had taken him by surprise. His fingers went stiff on the table, and his eyes narrowed as he fought to remain in control of himself. “I am aware. There is a reason I am sitting all the way over here.”

Her knife clicked closed, and she leveled him with a stare. “I already told you that you can feed on me.”

She said it so nonchalantly as if it were as simple as making a sandwich. He looked away from her, his jaw ticking in frustration. “Yeah, that’s not happening.”

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, he just didn’t trust himself not to hurt her. Hurting her was the last thing he wanted to do, and he currently didn’t have enough control over his darkness to take that risk.

“Is my blood any different than a random person on the street?”

“Yes,” he said simply. If only she knew how true that statement was. Words couldn’t even begin to explain all the differences between her blood and the blood of others. Nor was he going to even try.

She cocked her head to the side, clearly affected by his response. He doubted that she expected him to say that to her, but he wasn’t going to lie.

Unfortunately, Carly didn’t seem to want to let it go, despite him being obvious about not wanting to talk about it. “What do you mean?”

Landon didn’t want to go through this with her. He didn’t know exactly how to explain the fact that she was the best he had ever tasted without sounding like a monster. He didn’t want her to see him differently. While he may not want to lie to her, he didn’t feel the need to explain himself further either.

“Carly,” he warned. “Drop it.”

“Is it different in a good or bad way?” she pressed, ignoring his demand.

Finally, Landon looked at her again. His gums ached as his fangs pressed against the sensitive flesh. He longed to taste her again more than anything, but he wasn’t willing to risk her life for it. He hoped that she could see the seriousness on his face so that they could move on from this.

“It doesn’t matter, because it’s not happening,” he said flatly. “I won’t risk hurting you, and as hungry as I am right now, I will hurt you. Now, will you drop it? Please?”

‘Please’ was not a word that he used very often. It didn’t have a place in his vocabulary as he was used to getting whatever he wanted when he wanted it. Only Carly seemed to be unaffected by his demands. He just hoped that, by using that word, she would take the hint. Unfortunately, he was wrong.

Carly’s eyes became hooded, heated, and her gaze drifted to his lips. “I like a little pain, you know.”

It amazed him how sure of herself she seemed to be. She obviously trusted him more than he trusted himself. But he knew firsthand how divine she tasted, and if he were to feed from her now, he risked taking more than he should. He risked draining her completely and killing her, and that just wasn’t an option. At least, not until he found out what was really going on between them.

“There’s a difference between a little pain and death, you know,” he ground out through clenched teeth. She wasn’t making this easy on him in the slightest. “Why are you pushing this so hard anyway? Why are you insisting I feed from you instead of some random person? Why does the thought of that make you so jealous?”

Her gaze flicked back to his, the heat still there. “Because you’re mine.”

Her words had his eyebrows shooting up into his hairline as they had been so unexpected. “Is that so?”

She nodded. “I will gut the bitch who touches you next.”

Landon chuckled, unable to help himself, and scrubbed his hands down his face. This girl continued to surprise him at every turn. He kind of liked the thought of her being possessive in that way, but it also wasn’t a good thing. He had needs. Needs that needed to be tended to on a regular basis, and he wasn’t sure she could handle them. Nor was he sure that she could handle him and his darkness.

“You need to be very careful with your words, sweetheart,” he told her. “Claiming a vampire is a very dangerous game. We have needs. Needs that you might find to be more than you are prepared to deal with.”

It didn’t go unnoticed that his own voice had gone low and husky with his warning. His gums ached even more, and his dick throbbed against the zipper of his jeans. How he longed to take her at her word, but that was a dangerous game. One he didn’t want to play with her because he would surely break her.

“I am not afraid of you or your ‘needs.’” She leaned forward on the table, her voice becoming a whisper on her lips. “You’re not the only one with needs either.”

Despite his better judgment, his eyes darkened. He wanted to be the one to take care of those needs for her, but he knew that he couldn’t. “What you need and what I need are two very different things. Mine would push you far beyond your limits, little girl.”

They held each other’s stare for several moments before Carly looked down at the knife in her hand and flicked it open. Looking back up at him, she brought the blade up to the side of her neck without any hesitation.